Brothers Against Brothers
by VectorCrocodileFangirl
Summary: Mudflap and Skids have put up with too much already to let Sideswipe and Sunstreaker get to them like this.


**A/N: **Not my best work, but it helped me get out of a bit of a writing slump :3 Enjoy.

* * *

Before their arrival on Earth, Mudflap and Skids had been complete no-names, miscellaneous soldiers in the Autobot army. Now, though- _now_ they were _important_. Well, _more_ important than they had been _before_, at least. Everyone knew their names now and even though they were often treated like kids, Optimus still gave them _fairly_ important things to do. Even Ratchet, who found the two of them endlessly annoying, considered them an important part of the team. They were among the best and _loving_ it.

At least, until the _other_ twins showed up.

Sideswipe had shown up months earlier, not long after them and from the very beginning he'd been sort of a troublemaker, always pulling pranks; the others had tolerated it, even accepted it. Mudflap didn't give it much thought; Skids was smart enough to realize that they thought of him as a replacement for Lieutenant Jazz, who carried enough of a reputation as a prankster that he could _make_ such assumptions even though he'd never actually met him. All in all, though, it had been in good fun and hadn't been so bad. Until Sunstreaker showed up.

Sunstreaker was Sideswipe's twin brother, and unlike Sideswipe who was a mostly harmless prankster, Sunstreaker's fatal flaw was his arrogance. He believed he was the third greatest bot in existence, right behind Optimus and Primus himself. Alone, he was insufferable enough, but his younger twin only served to boost his already oversized ego. Aside from that, the two of them had been with Optimus and company for much longer than Mudflap and Skids. The only good thing about them was that the Chevy twins rarely had to _deal_ with them.

Not that _that_ could last long.

"What do we have here? Two mini-bots trying to play with the big boys? How cute," Sunstreaker said, crossing his arms and looking down at Mudflap and Skids smugly. He'd just come up to the two of them, seemingly without reason, in the middle of the communal lounge-type area. It was the first time he'd ever talked to either of them. "How about I get you two nice big bottles of Energon?" Sideswipe shoved him lightly in the arm.

"C'mon, Streak, you're being mean," he chided, although he couldn't keep himself from grinning. "Mudflap and Skids are _valuable members_ of the team.. we use them to get stuff off of the low shelves."

The older twins shared a laugh between themselves while Mudflap and Skids glared up at them. They were used to being mocked for their size when they were just peons in the army, but this was the first time they'd been ridiculed like this since they'd joined the team on Earth.

"Hey! We're soldiers just like you. We take down Decepticon punks _every day, _just like you. So get off our backs, man." Skids said, crossing his arms angrily. The two bigger bots just laughed.

"I love when they try to act tough like this," Sunstreaker grinned, looking over at his twin brother. "Come on, let's go do something actually _worthwhile_." As the two turned and walked away, Mudflap grabbed Skids' arm and pulled him back to keep him from going after them.

"C'mon, man, if we pick a fight with them Optimus will have our heads," he reminded him, letting go of his older twin as the Lambos disappeared around the corner. "Now, I don't know 'bout you, but _I _don't wanna piss the big guy off." Skids rubbed his arm and let out a little noise of discontent.

"Whatever, man," he muttered, walking in the opposite direction of the bigger twins. "We can't just let 'em walk all over us like that, Mudflap. We worked too hard to actually get _respect_ here to let them just ruin all of it."

"I know, man, but we gotta do this the _smart_ way so we don't get in trouble with the big guys," he said, tapping the side of his head. He was referring, of course, to Optimus, Ratchet, Ironhide and Bumblebee, all of whom were quick to get angry at the two of them whenever they put a toe out of line. "Anyway, if we're lucky, maybe that asshole will just lose interest." he said optimistically. Skids just rolled his eyes.

"Yeah, 'cause _that's_ gonna happen," he said. "We're good as stuck with this douchebag 'til we can figure out how to hit him where it _hurts_." He'd been thinking 'in the face', but as Mudflap had pointed out, that probably wasn't a very smart idea with the two of them being friends of the _real_ team, the heads of all the Autobots still left. The others, the ones like them that had only just joined them- they were small fry, comparatively, as much as Skids had tried to make it sound otherwise.

"Well _that's_ easy," Mudflap said, smacking him on the shoulder. "We just have to show him up at somethin'. He thinks he's all that, so when we show him he ain't, he'll leave us alone," Skids whirled around and smacked Mudflap in the side of the head. "Hey! What was that for?" he asked, pushing Skids.

"You don't think I already _thought_ of that, stupid? But how the fuck are we supposed to do _that_? He may be a big bag of hot air, but he's _still_ a better soldier than both of us combined, and what the fuck else are we good at?" he pointed out. Mudflap put his finger up like he was about to make a point, but he quickly closed his mouth and screwed up his face.

"You've.. got a point," he admitted. "But I don't think anything else is gonna get to that guy. We've gotta find a way to do it, man."

Skids nodded, tilting his head to the side and putting a hand on his chin. "There might be a way," he admitted, moving his hand to cross his arms. "But it'll take a lot of luck to pull off; c'mon, let's walk and talk."

* * *

It was two days later, and Sunstreaker had cornered them to mock them the morning before and that morning as well. It had taken all of the little patience Skids had not to completely snap, but somehow he'd managed to hold out until this point.

The entire team was gathered in the cargo bay. There had been several reports of Decepticons in the area and today they were heading out to deal with them.

Optimus stood in front of the group, chatting with Ratchet as everyone assembled and settled. The Chevy's made sure to stand at the opposite side of the room from the Lambo's, who were either having a friendly chat with him or tormenting him- who could tell, when Bumblebee couldn't really _talk_?

After everyone had mostly settled in, Optimus nodded to Ratchet, who joined the other Autobots. The Autobot leader cleared his throat, and the entire group immediately stopped talking and stood at attention.

"Okay, we have a _lot_ of work to do," Optimus said, looking around the room at each of them. "We've had six Decepticon sightings that we have to deal with, so I'm sending you off in teams to take care of them. Ratchet, you'll be with Jolt," he started. "Ironhide will be with Bumblebee, the Arcee's will be a team, Mudflap and Skids will be a team, and so will Sideswipe and Sunstreaker," He nodded towards the doorway. "I'll be going after the last one on my own. I'll send you the locations of the Decepticon sightings once we're on the road. Is everyone okay with this plan?" Although Mudflap gave Skids a tentative look, everyone nodded after a second or so. "Good. Autobots, roll out!"

The cargo bay doors parted and the twelve present Autobots transformed into their vehicle forms. Mudflap and Skids, in their Chevrolet Trax and Beat forms that were starting to get dented and scratched, felt ridiculous driving next to the two brand new Lamborghini's. Even though Sideswipe had been there almost as long as they had and had been in just as many fights as they had, he barely had a scratch on him, and the much newer Sunstreaker's alternate form was borderline flawless.

"We need new threads, man," Mudflap whined to his twin over a closed two-way connection. He slowed down and swerved backwards past Sideswipe, who was driving ahead of Skids and behind Mudflap, to drive directly in front of the lime-green Beat. "We're starting to look like we're ready for the scrap heap."

Skids pulled over until he knocked into his brother's side, forcing him to drive into the dirt shoulder of the road. The Autobot HQ was essentially in the middle of nowhere to give them privacy. "Man, we're off to kill a _Decepticon_ and you're thinking about how you _look_? Did you fall on your head and damage your circuits or something? _Get your head in the fucking game,_ man, it's no wonder those assholes don't take us seriously." As Skids pulled back over to his side of the road, Mudflap corrected himself and dropped behind his older twin just slightly.

"..sorry, Skids." The uncharacteristic apology almost made Skids feel bad about bitching him out, but he really _did_ need to focus.

They'd made their plans the night after the first session of torment, after lights out. Skids had sneaked into Mudflap's room (something that would have been easy even if he _hadn't_ had a key card- unlike human twins, _everything_ about them was naturally identical, just mirrored, so the identification system wouldn't have been able to tell the difference) and they'd stayed up far past when they should have. They had to be up early in the morning, after all, but it wasn't like they didn't do this almost every night. In the end, they decided their plan was foolproof- with a little luck and the right conditions, of course.

Maybe _today_ the conditions would be right.

Skids' built in GPS beeped as Optimus transmitted the location of the Decepticon they were going after. There were six different coloured dots spread over and around the state, but two- the blue dot that corresponded with _their_ target and a yellow dot about two clicks away.

"Hey, who's got the yellow dot?" Skids asked over an open connection. All of a sudden, someone opened a closed connection with him and Mudflap.

"That would be _us_, small fry," Sunstreaker replied, sounding just as arrogant as ever. "Don't get in our way." Still able to see the back of Sunstreaker's flawless alternate form, Skids had to resist the urge to ram into it.

"Don't worry, _we_ won't be getting in _your_ way," he growled. "Try to do the same thing for us." Sunstreaker openly laughed at him, and Mudflap had to nudge his brother over on the road to keep him from _actually_ driving into Sunstreaker.

"I don't think you'll have to worry about _that_," he replied, speeding up. "See you there, suckers!" The Lambo twins sped off, closing the connection.

"We really gonna do this, Skids?" Mudflap asked over their closed connection. "Optimus must have given them that assignment for a _reason_. We could get our asses handed to us."

Skids sped up a little.

"Yeah. We're gonna do this, Mudflap."

* * *

After about another mile, the two sets of twins split up, Mudflap and Skids turning off onto a side road and the Lambos continuing down the main one.

At the end of the dirt road was a gutted and abandoned building with a condemned notice scrawled across the gate. The building was crawling with moss and other plants; essentially, the perfect hiding place for a Decepticon.

After securing the perimeter, the two pulled up to the front of the building and stood on either side of the entrance.

"You think it's really in there?" Mudflap asked with a loud whisper. Everything was eerily silent; even their more detailed sensors couldn't pick up a single noise other than the slight echo of wind blowing through the building. Skids shrugged.

"We're not gonna figure out standing around out here," he replied. Mudflap peered into the pure darkness of the building, completely unsure. "'Sides, if it's in there, it can't be _too_ tough or it would have attacked us already." The Trax looked at his older brother and gave a little, hesitant nod; if Skids said it was okay, it was okay. That was just how things worked.

Skids took a hesitant step into the building; once he was sure the floor wasn't going to fall out under their weight or anything, he took a full step inside and motioned for Mudflap to follow. Their eyes, doubling as headlights, cast thin beams of light into the room. They both looked around carefully, taking cautious steps; all they saw, however, were dusty old crates covered by tarps and a few pieces of gutted machinery.

"I don't think it's—"

Mudflap's almost hopeful sentence was cut off by the sound of a loud _bang_ from under them. The twins stopped in their tracks. Skids turned back, carefully and quietly, to his brother and put a finger up to his mouth while pointing at the ground with his other hand. Mudflap nodded as Skids knelt and knocked on the ground as casually as if he were knocking on Mudflap's door.

"Yoohoo, any Decepticons home?" he called.

Their target replied by bursting up through the floor.

Skids was knocked clear of the point of exit and into Mudflap, who caught him. They'd been expecting a normal Decepticon, not whatever- _this_ thing was.

It was nowhere near as frightening as Devastator, but it was still enough to frighten; whatever it was, it had thick front legs that it used to drag itself out of the hole it had made, held together with rusted red metal. Its fangs and claws were made of jagged pieces of scrap metal and its two sets of eyes were set high on its face. It let out a loud grinding noise that could have been a roar and took a swipe at the twins as it pulled itself out of the hole fully, dragging a heavy-looking drill on the end of a short tail. Luckily, Mudflap was able to pull the still-dazed Skids out of the way of the impending strike.

"C'mon, man, get _up_!" the younger twin prompted, pulling Skids to his feet. The Beat stumbled forward a bit, but shook away the dizziness from being thrown into his brother. He grabbed a sizable piece of concrete and tossed it at the head of the Decepticon creature, who caught it in its mouth and crushed it to gravel.

"What the _fuck_ are _you_?" Skids yelled, grabbing another piece of concrete thrown loose by the- _whatever_ it was and once again tossing it at its head, while it still had the remnants of the last piece in its jaws. This time it hit him square in the face, bouncing off with a loud _thunk. _The _thing_ shook its head, growling.

"Uh, Skids? I think you're just making it angrier." Mudflap noted, his voice cracking. The twins backed up as the Decepticon drew closer.

The creature snapped out at the twins, who just barely dashed out of the way of its claws. Skids rushed at it, grabbing onto its leg and swinging himself onto its back. The creature bucked and roared, trying to throw him off, but Skids held on tight and pulled the Decepticon's head back by the neck.

"C'mon, Mudflap, get it!" he yelled. Mudflap stuck his arms out to the sides.

"With _what_, moron? We don't _have_ any real weapons!" he reminded him.

"Think of something _creative_!" Skids yelled as the creature bucked harder and roared louder, desperate to have the thing clinging to its neck _off_. It didn't take long for the older twin to go flying, at which point the creature made a mad dash for the exit, surprisingly fast in spite of its size and lack of back legs. Fortunately, neither of the brothers were hurt.

Skids got to his feet, rubbing his head. "Oh _shit_.."

* * *

Sideswipe gave the mangle body of the Decepticon in front of him a good kick, practically taking his head off his neck.

"Couldn't Optimus give us something more _challenging_ to do?" Sunstreaker asked, sounding massively bored. Sideswipe turned towards his twin brother and shrugged.

"These days there really isn't anything to do other than this easy stuff," he replied, dusting off his hands. Sunstreaker let out a little noise of discontent. "Hey, if you want to go looking for trouble, I won't stop you, bro. Optimus probably won't be too happy, though." Sunstreaker nudged the dead Decepticon with his foot.

"Yeah, you're probably right," he sighed. He was about to suggest they head back when he heard a loud, earth-shattering roar followed by the sound of screeching tires. "What the...?"

"Get out of the way!" screamed the younger Chevy twin as they both sped towards them in alternate mode, but that wasn't what grabbed Sunstreaker's attention.

No, what he saw first was the giant, almost scorpion-like Decepticon heading straight for them.

"What the hell did you two _do_?" Sunstreaker screamed, readying his gun. He took a shot at it, as carefully aimed as he could with what little time he had, and fired. However, the creature merely skidded to one side, ending up flat on its side. Within a second it was back on its front legs and careening towards them.

"We didn't do nothin'!" Skids yelled, transforming into his normal form. "It was just too fast for us!" Sideswipe took a wild shot at the monster as he and his brother expertly dodged the charging beast. The shot flew right over its head.

"Dammit, you two! Youreally _are_ useless! Leave this to us!" Sunstreaker yelled, going down on one knee and firing again. All it managed to do was graze the top of its head and make it angrier. It turned immediately towards Sunstreaker and let out a horrifying roar. The yellow Lamborghini got to his feet and held his arms in a fighting stance. "Bring it." he growled.

The monster kindly obliged.

Sunstreaker made to grab it around the neck, but it merely rammed it's head into the Autobot from the side and sent him flying.

"Streak!" Sideswipe yelled after his brother. He spared him only a momentary glance before having to roll to the side to avoid the Decepticon ramming directly into him. However, the creature changed paths to follow his dodge and grabbed him in one giant claw.

"Swipe!" Sunstreaker yelled, getting to his feet. A quickly transforming Mudflap grabbed the creature around the neck. As he did so, Sunstreaker took careful aim at the head of the creature.

"Don't!" Skids screamed, grabbing Sunstreaker's arm. "You'll hit Mudflap!"

"He'll rip Sideswipe apart! You expect me to put the life of _your_ brother ahead of _mine_?" Sunstreaker demanded. He was about to take the shot when Mudflap pulling at the thing's neck made the monster threw Sideswipe at him, the two landing in a pile of tangled limbs. Instead he chose to focus on reaching back to try and pry Mudflap off of him. As much as it tried, however, Mudflap hung on like his life depended on it- which it likely did.

Skids looked over at the Lambo twins; Sideswipe was borderline unconscious, while Sunstreaker was dazed by being hit with his brother's full weight. Meanwhile, in an effort to get free, the creature was charging at full speed towards them. In their state, they would either get crushed or ripped apart.

He jumped into action. Even if they'd pushed them around and treated them like dirt, Sunstreaker and Sideswipe were still members of the same team. They didn't deserve that. He bodily tackled the beast, which didn't quite knock it over but certainly knocked it off course. The creature roared loudly at him.

"Oh, you want some more of this? Come and get it," Skids growled. Only too happy to oblige, it charged at him, head ducked down to ram into him. Skids quickly dodged to the side, however, and grabbed Mudflap's outstretched hand. The younger brother swung his twin onto the back of the Decepticon with him. "Yeehaw!" Skids called, turning around and grabbing the tail of the monster. The sudden shift in weight made him face plant. While he was on the ground, Mudflap took advantage of the few moments of stillness and grabbed its jaws in his hands, pulling them as far apart as he could. The thing let out a gurgled screech of pain. It wasn't long before the strain made the monster's jaws split, dividing it's head right down to its throat. It thrashed in pain, bright blue Energon leaking out all over the grass. Skids jumped from its back and ran over to the Lambos, who were just starting to recover, and grabbed Sunstreaker's gun. "Borrowing this!" he called to the yellow Lamborghini, who was just now moving to push his brother off of him.

"Hey!" he called, but Skids ignored him, running up to the thrashing, bleeding monstrosity. He shoved the barrel of the huge gun, almost too big for him to lift, into its mouth.

"Here's your damn food!" he yelled, shooting down its throat. The creature's body temporarily lit up from the inside and it let out a pathetic roar before falling over, smoke spewing from its mouth.

Sunstreaker stared at the twins and the dead Decepticon in disbelief.

"That- that _thing_ was incredibly strong," he said, almost in awe. "How did you..?"

Skids and Mudflap shared a look and had to hold back their grins. That hadn't been their plan, not at _all_- but _this_ had worked more brilliantly than they'd hoped.

"It was nothin'," Skids replied with a little shrug. "Just good teamwork."

The Lambos looked at each other; were they human, their skin would have been bright red from embarrassment. Sunstreaker shifted his weight from one foot to the other.

"Well.. _maybe_ you're not as useless as I thought," he said. "How about we made a deal; _you_ don't tell anyone you saved us and we don't bother you again?" he suggested. The Chevy twins exchanged another glance, then looked back at the no longer so smug Sunstreaker.

"Deal."


End file.
